It's taken 30 professional
fights but Mikey Garcia is finally on the doorstep of a major world title as he
faces WBO beltholderOrlando Salidoon Saturday night from the Theater at
Madison Square Garden (9:45 p.m., ET/PT, HBO). By today's standards, especially
in the era of four major sanctioning bodies, this is actually a long and
winding road. Nowadays, most talented prospects are microwaved and are fighting
for a belt within 20 to 25 fights. A prime example is the gifted Adrien Broner,
who, in 25 fights, is already on his second world title (in as many weight
classes) and has become an HBO staple. Last year was supposed to be Garcia's
big jump off.

Instead, it was the year
that wasn't.

After coolly dispatching of
Bernabe Concepcion last March in Puerto Rico, he was then slated to face WBA
featherweight beltholder Celestino Caballero during the summer months. But that
fight ended up in “Bolivian” for various reasons. Then Garcia was originally
scheduled to take on Salido on November 10th before the rugged Mexican
injured his hand while closing the trunk of his car. Yeah, Murphy's Law was
squarely against Garcia in 2012.

But it's here. Christmas has
arrived on January 19th for the calculated counterpuncher from
Oxnard.

“I'm very excited; I'm
finally here,” he told Maxboxing last week. “Last year, we were looking for a
title opportunity, two title shots in front of me, signed, agreed on and it
just wasn't happening. Finally, everything is going well. Right now, the fight
is just around the corner.” Garcia is only 25 years old but wise beyond his
years. He says of the lost opportunities, “We were really excited to be offered
those title shots and then when we hear the news that it's not happening, it is
frustrating. It is a little upsetting that all the hard work, everything is
going well and all of a sudden - it's not happening. It is upsetting; I mean, I
understand. Things like this happen all the time and it's just part of the game
and we gotta move forward.”

Even Job would've grown a
bit impatient with the way 2012 played out.

“It was just one bad thing
after another and fights kept falling out for him,” said Garcia's manager,
Cameron Dunkin, who had to be the bearer of bad news a bit too often for his
liking. After his appearance on Showtime, Garcia had a tune-up in Mexico versus
the ancient and undersized Mauricio Pastrana, which lasted less than two rounds,
and then Jonathan Barros, a late replacement for Salido on HBO. What also held
up his progress was Showtime's indecision on whether they wanted to air the
Salido-Garcia fight. They took most of the spring and summer to decide that
they didn't want this bout, which sparked claims by Bob Arum that Top Rank had
effectively been banned from the network.

But Garcia took it in
stride, pointing out, “I also had two fights on national networks and good opportunities
for people to still see me and still stay active and busy. I mean, it turned
out to be a pretty good year after all.”

The usual template for
boxers winning their first belts involves cherry-picking the softest champions.
Well, in Salido, they are facing one of the hardest men in boxing, a man who
struggled for years on the back lots and fringes of the sport and isn't about
to give up his title easily. Some titles are easier to attain than others. This
here might be as tough as Garcia will ever have to fight for. “This didn't work
out the way we wanted,” said Dunkin with a rueful laugh, knowing very well just
what type of assignment his guy has in front of him. “I tried to do other guys
and it didn't work out. And then it came to where we knew we could do this
because [Garcia]’s with Top Rank and it makes sense. It's simple. The problem
is, he's right at the top of the best featherweights in the world.”

Sometimes, you just gotta
trust the thoroughbred you have and let him run.

“So I had to go to Robert [Garcia]
and ask him and he said, ‘We'll be alright’ and Mr. Garcia, Eduardo, and he
said, ‘We'll be alright’ and I said, ‘Are you sure?’ and they talked me into
it. So here we are.”

Juan Manuel Lopez was believed
to be the next superstar from the island of Puerto Rico and he was derailed twice
by Salido, whose record of 39-11-2 (27) belies the quality of fighter that has
been forged throughout the years.

“Everybody knows it; he's the man to beat,” said Garcia,
respectfully. “He's the champion; he's a proven champion. He did not just pick
up a vacant title and they didn't baby him. He's a proven champ; he fought
everybody and beat Juan Manuel Lopez. He upset him. He's the real deal and
that's why we want him. That's why we were going after him. Beating him would
really skyrocket me to the top of the division.”

This is exactly what Arum
had in mind in putting this match-up together.

“We thought that Salido was the toughest guy out there and we think that Mikey
has the potential - if he beats Salido to become a superstar - and the first
step in making him a superstar is for him to have beaten a top, top guy. Now, I
don't give a damn about any of these titles anymore. There's just too many of
them, their interims, their everything. So that's not what we were looking for.
I'm looking for him to fight the top guys. What am I going to do? Put him with
this Billy Dib guy?” asked Arum of the Australian who has the IBF title in his
possession. “I mean, he's a nice kid; I guess. But would you give Mikey any
credit if he won the title by beating Billy Dib?”

While Salido may provide the
toughest test for Garcia physically, stylistically, he is ideal for him. Like
Juan Manuel Marquez many moons ago, the book is out on Garcia: Don't lead on
this sharp counterpuncher who is as accurate and deadly as a Marine sniper.
Salido's style is all about pressure and coming forward.

Garcia states, “I expect him to come forward strong and try to test me early
on. But I've also seen some of his fights where he's laid back a little; he
waits for his opponents to come in and we're expecting him to come forward. But
if he decides to wait for me a little bit, we also have practiced and trained
for that.”

The world will find out if
he's tough enough to handle the pressure of Salido. It's already obvious that he
has the requisite patience.

NEW YORK

So how and why did this
fight, which would seem a natural fit for the West Coast, end up in the Big
Apple?

“We just thought that as part of the plan to make Garcia into a big attraction,
we wanted to expose him in New York and Gennady Golovkin being Russian had some
kind of Russian following in New York and we have this Rocky Martinez, who's a
Puerto Rican guy, plus Felix Verdejo. So we get a Puerto Rican influence but
it's a myth that the only ones that can sell in New York are Puerto Ricans,”
explained Arum.

BEST OF TIMES, WORST OF
TIMES

It was reported on Tuesday
that the fight between WBA welterweight titlist Paulie Malignaggi and Shane
Mosley was basically a done deal for April 27th at the Barclays
Center on Showtime. Also, the highly anticipated rematch between super
middleweight standouts Carl Froch and Mikkel Kessler would be taking place in
the U.K. in May.

In short, Malignaggi-Mosley
deserves all the derision heaped upon it (and there has been plenty) and it's
not just that Mosley hasn't won a professional prizefight since January of
2009. It’s that he's looked so dull and desultory in every subsequent fight
since then. Say what you want about Glen Johnson but during his descent, he at
least gave the fans some moments and some competitiveness. Some will try and
justify this match-up but honestly, it's just bad.

Just why, oh, why did Ricky
Hatton have to face Vyacheslav Senchenko?

As for Froch-Kessler II, not
too much to say except it should be a helluva fight. I thought the first one
was a very close affair that could've gone either way. Now the question is,
will HBO air this fight? Bottom line is that they are now in the Andre Ward
business and part of being in that business is developing B-sides for him.
Yeah, yeah, I know; Ward already handled both guys. I get that. But tell me you
wouldn't rather see the winner of this return bout get Ward than Kelly Pavlik.

TICKET INFO

Here's the ticket info for
the March 9th battle between IBF light heavyweight titlist Tavoris
Cloud and Bernard Hopkins:

Tickets,
priced at $200, $100, $80, $50 and $25, go on saleon Saturday, January 19 at 10:00 a.m. ETand will be available for purchase atwww.barclayscenter.com,www.ticketmaster.com,
the American Express Box Office at Barclays Center, all Ticketmaster locations,
or by calling 800-745-3000.

FLU FLURRIES

On March 16th, a
lightweight unification fight takes place between WBO titlist Ricky Burns and
IBF beltholder Miguel Vazquez. This is an interesting fight that seemed to come
out of nowhere. I think Burns is looking for another belt to get leverage on a
possible Broner negotiation down the line but Vazquez is a tough out and could
make the Mona Lisa look ugly...So Roy Jones might face Steve Collins later this
year? Uh, yeah, who's after that, Nigel Benn, Dariusz Michalczewski and Chris
Eubank? He must've forgot - to face them in the ‘90s...OK, are flu shots
effective or not? I keep hearing conflicting things. Should I get one before I
head to New York on Friday? [Editor’s
note: Got one some weeks back and now I present this piece to you while firmly
under the weather. Please read this article from five to seven feet away.]...Can
the Lakers’ Earl Clark actually play a little bit? And if so, what took them so
long to get him off the bench?...I get why Lance Armstrong used PEDs. What I
find really objectionable about him is how he tried to coerce and intimidate
those who told the truth about him...